Escape
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“She’s comatose,” a deep voice said, strained. My bottom had grown as cold as the stone of the pit. “Amara,” he insisted, hand on my shoulder.
I could see someone before me, but I could not move my body. His face stirred familiarity. Where had I seen him before?
“If we do not leave, we will be tossed to the Hollows next.” Bitterness coated his voice. Just like Renata.
She had told them I was working with the Resistance. Cassiel knew when I walked into his chamber. Nothing I would have begged would have gotten through to him. He had already seen me as a traitor.
My heart squeezed.
‘We have to go, Amara!’ Piper was here?
Teeth sank into my hand, and I was ripped out of the foggy haze. I blinked and stared down at Piper.
“Piper?” I croaked, registering the warmth at my breastbone.
‘We can do greetings later,’ she chittered. ‘We must run now.’
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
‘I do not want to bite you again,’ she snapped.
“Thank Saints you are conscious.” He grinned impishly. I squinted, scanning the broad features making up the planes of his face. He seemed terribly familiar.
“You are the . . .”
“Yep.” He popped the last letter. Damien, the stable boy. The spy.
“We have to get you out of here. We only have a small time frame.” His hand curled under my elbow. I winced.
“Apologies, my lady, there is no place on you that isn’t bruised,” he said gruffly. He helped me to my feet.
‘You must snap out of it, Amara!’ Piper shouted, clinging to Damien’s shoulder.
I blinked, shaking my head. “I saw her die,” I croaked.
Damien looked over his shoulder. “It will be us next if you do not move it.”
‘Time for harsh Piper. Amara, Nocturn begins in the next dawnlight. You will die.’ I blinked at her. ‘I will die.’
Piper . . . dead?
No, never. I could never let that happen. I rubbed my temples and pulled out of Damien’s grip.
“I a-am here,” I croaked. “Lead the way.”
It took me a bit to get to my feet. As soon as I stepped forward, my hip seized, slowing my stride. It was the one injury that came from a bed I’d climbed into willingly. Gritting my teeth, I stiffened my legs and lifted my chin. I didn’t have the luxury of a body that worked properly any longer.
He studied me for a second and turned. Piper continued to cling to his shoulder.
‘I shall stay here. You look like a stiff breeze could topple you,’ Piper said.
I missed her.
‘Now be quiet and follow Damien. He will guide you to some Liadan fellow.’
I bit down on my tongue.
‘I see the question in your eyes. What, did you think I would not have information ready for you?’
Damien put a hand up, stopping me at the exit of the pit. Instead of turning the way through the Grand Hall, he took the other direction, deeper into the cavernous, damp walls. Aches and pains pinched every single joint in my body.
‘Before coming, he told me to tell you to keep close to him and keep quiet. The Guard is doing a change of officers at this precise moment, and the confusion will allow us to slip past.’
I nodded curtly and did as she said, following so close I was only half a pace behind him.
He wound through the inclined hallway, through another alcove.
The deeper we went, the darker it became, with no light other than the occasional torches attached to the stone.
A sudden sharp turn led us into a shadowed chamber.
He crouched and gripped the bars barring a manhole.
“Get in,” he murmured. I peered into the hole with no visible exit.
“Into the oubliette?”
“Yes. Unless you’d rather stay here.”
I looked at Piper, and she remained quiet.
“Are you my wraithling or his?” I mumbled and lowered myself to dangle my feet inside. When I dropped, my leg buckled, and I slapped a hand on the damp wall. The hole opened to a crumbling section surrounded by dirt.
Damien dropped beside me, his body sliding against mine. He cupped my hip and guided me to the side so he could drop onto his knees and crawl forward. I mimicked his stance, shoving Branwen’s robe aside to free my movement while ignoring the pinch to my knees from the pebbles digging into my skin.
“There is a carriage that brings goods from the village,” he whispered. “Keep quiet.”
I grunted so he knew I understood.
We continued crawling until my knees stung from the cuts forming along them and my palms had a layer of dirt clinging to the dampness. He slowed, and the tunnel had become so small his arm brushed against rubble from trying to keep himself to one side so Piper could have room.
I stayed a pace away from his stopped form. He pushed at something, once, twice, then rammed his shoulder into it. A circular stone popped forward and landed with a thud. It was the moment when moonlight gave way to dawnlight, turning the sky the shade of fully bloomed rosah petals.
He tapped his shoulder, then Piper hopped off and sped out. I clenched the dirt, and it sifted through my fingers.
I let out a slow breath.
Piper squeaked. I always had to remind myself that she had as many annum rotations under her belt as I did. She was not a child.
Damien moved forward, bursting out and crouching next to the hole. I took his proffered hand, and he aided me to my feet. I held on a bit longer to steady myself because my injured leg buckled.
Screaming echoed from the distance, muffled and erratic. Jagged stone spanned behind me, and I had to crane my neck. The texture of the building, rigid, polished stone, told me it was the House of Lords . . . just a different end of it.
“This is where I leave you,” Damien whispered, his breath brushing my ear. He tipped his head, touching his fingertips to his temple. He looked at Piper standing on her hind legs beside me and did the same head tilt.
‘Tell him bye for me!’ she said, rushed. ‘And thank you.’
I heard the admiration in her tone.
“Piper thanked you,” I whispered. He winked at Piper and left, casually strolling the opposite way.
“Stop swooning,” I nudged her with the tip of my foot, unable to hide the twitching of my lips.
‘I was not,’ she scoffed.
I gave her a look telling her how little I believed it.
‘Follow me,’ she grumbled, her small feet putter-pattering across the dirt. ‘The carriage will be at the servants’ entrance.’ She quickened her pace, and I struggled to keep up. ‘Stop before the turn to make sure there is no one to sound the alarm.’
The wall ran on past where I could see. I kept as low as I could, hugging the shadow it cast.
Keeping calm at this moment was vital when all I wanted was to scream and shout at everyone—no, at Cassiel. Now I understood why he had not even allowed me a speck of belief; he knew about the Resistance and my part in it.
With how he felt about redbloods, the strength it must have taken him not to snap my neck . . .
I slowed and carefully peeked around the bend to find a section that dipped inward covered by an awning. A wagon, wooden and half the length of a carriage, stood strapped to four draft horses, sitting about fifteen paces away. One of the two doors had been propped open.
“Just two more carts after this, Billy,” a woman announced, following a thickset man as he carried an empty wooden container. Something where fruit was toted around. He leaned up and the sound of scraping came from inside.
Four moon rotations had passed with me here, and this was the first time I saw this back entrance.
The man and woman continued chattering, but their voices faded under the thundering of my pulse. He straightened, and they rounded the wagon, entering the dark entrance.
‘Now!’ Piper squealed and took off at a sprint, me on her heels. I gritted my teeth, ignoring the stabbing pain traveling from my knee to my hip.
‘Everything is clear,’ Piper said, returning to my side as I reached the wagon. She climbed up my leg and I stretched my arm out so she could get inside. With my palms braced on the lip of the wagon, I hoisted myself up, tossing my good leg up.
‘Back here!’
I followed Piper’s direction and slid through the wooden barrels and stacked containers. Far enough that all the clutter blocked me. I found Piper tucked in the far corner behind a thick barrel. I braced myself and slid onto the ground next to her.
“These Elites and their dramatics,” the muffled voices continued from outside, nearing.
Just in time.
Their chatter faded, and there was movement from the front, but I kept painfully still until the dawnlight coming in was cut off and all that was offered were the little slivers spilling between the slats.
It was no more than a few breaths before the wagon began to travel, shaking as the horses settled into a steady pace.
I drooped, hugging Piper’s long body to my chest.
We did it.
“It took you long enough.”
A scream caught in my throat.